


While the Town Sleeps

by captainamergirl



Category: One Life to Live, Port Charles (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Crossover Pairings, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Rare Pairings, Vampires, supernatural stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:01:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28046607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/captainamergirl
Summary: Dead bodies, completely drained of blood, are suddenly turning up all over Llanview...
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	While the Town Sleeps

**Ch. 1: A Deadbeat Date**  
  
“Michael, I’m not going and that’s the end of it,” John McBain said as he sat on the edge of his bed, looking into the bottom of a now-empty beer bottle.  
  
“C’mon, John,” Michael practically whined. “Marcie says this woman is fabulous. They went to college together and she’s new in town and needs someone to show her around. You don’t even have to think of it as a date. You can be like a tour guide for her.”  
  
“I’m still not going, Mikey,” John answered and stood and walked over to the window, leaning against it and looking over the darkened night sky. “Now for the last time, just leave me alone.”  
  
“It's been a year, John, actually a year and a half,” Michael said. “Don’t you think it’s time to move on?”  
  
“Don’t go there,” John practically hissed. He thought it almost rich of Michael, a happily married man with a wonderful wife and a child on the way, to be talking about this situation like it was some kind of insignificant detail.  
  
“John –“ Michael started again but John’s glare shut him up momentarily.  
  
Michael sighed and reached for his jacket on the back of the sofa. “Fine. Be that way then. Marcie’s friend will be so disappointed but –“  
  
“Michael, she may be disappointed but at least she’s alive. And she probably isn’t coping with having a dead spouse either,” John fairly spat. “You honestly don’t know what it’s like and I’m sure she doesn’t either. Evangeline was everything to me.”  
  
“Counseling, John, have you thought about it yet?”  
  
John fairly shoved his brother to the door. “Get out, Michael. I don’t want to hurt you but I will if I have to.”  
  
“Fine, I’ll go,” Michael said. “Just think about what I’ve said.”  
  
“Yeah, I will,” John said though it was clear to both of the brothers that he had no intention of doing anything of the kind.  
  
After Michael was gone, John sank back on his bed and tried to fall asleep but as always, sleep was elusive at best. In fact, it had been so long since he had a regular night’s sleep that he almost forgot what it was like. He used to sleep with Evangeline curled up in his arms and her warm breath on his neck and he would hold her for hours and just watch her sleep.  
  
Now he was colder and emptier inside than he ever had been.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Somehow John managed to get some sleep and then the call came in at close to four a.m. “John, it’s Brody.”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“We’ve got the body of a woman down here on the docks and she’s –“  
  
“Obviously not breathing,” John said, as if to say what else is new?  
  
“Yeah … So we need you down here to help survey the scene.”  
  
“Can’t do it. I’ve been drinking,” John said.  
  
“Come on. You sound sober enough now. And the perp is long gone so all you’d really need to do is come down here and make sure no one touches anything. We’ve got some rookie cops you know and they are pretty inept.”  
  
“I can’t get out of this can I?”  
  
“Nope so come on down. We’ll be expecting you.”  
  
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” John said dryly.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
John put on his flashing lights and managed to reach the docks in less than fifteen minutes. He had already been fully dressed and so all he needed to do was down a cold cup of Roxie’s chest-hair-growing coffee and he had been ready to go. If Bo found out he had been drinking, he would have been angry but John also knew Brody wouldn’t say anything.  
  
John pulled on gloves and jumped out of his SUV. He hurried over to the crime scene and slipped under the yellow guard tape, flashing his badge at a gawky-looking CSI. He moved over to Brody. “What do we got?”  
  
“It’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen,” Brody said.  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“She’s dead, right, but there’s not a trace of blood in her according to the M.E. and no signs of strangulation. She looks like she’s just sleeping.”  
  
John nodded. “That is strange.”  
  
He got down to one knee and pulled back the white sheet. A petite, blonde woman was staring up at him, blue eyes big and glassy now. It was downright creepy.  
  
“We got a name on her?” John asked.  
  
“Yeah, yeah we do,” Brody said passing John a wallet.  
  
John read the name on her driver's license with cold dread in his stomach. Brody must have noticed the sickened look on his face because he immediately asked, “What’s wrong? Do you know her?”  
  
“Yeah, kind of. I think she was supposed to be my date tonight …”

“Oh man, this was your date?” Brody said with a shake of his head. “That really sucks.”  
  
“Yeah …” John said. He wondered if he could have stopped this murder if he had only gone on the damn date tonight instead of insisting on playing hardass and staying home and drinking himself into a stupor.  
  
“Are you sure? One hundred percent sure it’s her?”  
  
“How many Alison Barrington’s could there be in this town anyway?” John said, handing him back the wallet.  
  
“I have no idea.”  
  
“Was there any cash in her wallet?” John asked.  
  
“Yeah a couple hundred dollars,” Brody answered.  
  
“So then the motive couldn’t have been robbery …”  
  
“Oh man, this is the worst part of the job,” Brody said with an elongated sigh.  
  
John just nodded. How was he supposed to tell Marcie her best friend from college was dead and gone? Drained of blood and cold and alone on these docks while her killer was running free.  
  
He pulled the sheet back over the lifeless woman and sighed. Brody was right. This was the absolute worst part of the job. A police officer was supposed to protect and serve and sometimes you just couldn’t.  
  
Still, John couldn’t help feeling though that he could have stopped this if he had just gone on the date, if he had just been willing to step outside his own grief and misery for a moment and be there for someone who had obviously needed someone to protect her.  
  
All he could do now was try to find out exactly what happened to her.  
  
He turned to face Brody. “I’m going to go and talk to Marcie, tell her what’s happened.”  
  
“What does Marcie have to do with this?” Brody asked.  
  
“She knew the victim,” John said quietly. “They were friends from college. Maybe she has some information to help us. Maybe there was a jealous boyfriend or someone in Alison’s past who might have tracked her down …”  
  
He turned and started walking away when he noticed Jessica Buchanan standing just beyond the police cordon scribbling in a notebook.  
  
He moved over to her. “What are you doing here?” He asked with a sigh.  
  
“I am a reporter, remember?” Jessica said. “What happened down here?”  
  
“How did you find out about this?”  
  
“Police scanner,” Jessica said. “I was working on a mundane article at The Banner office when the call came in. I may be just a ‘cub’ in Todd’s eyes but I can help spread the truth.”  
  
“You shouldn’t be here, Jessica,” John said, thinking suddenly how much she looked like the deceased Alison. Serenely blonde and flawlessly beautiful. The perfect victim for a sicko if there was indeed some twisted sociopath running around with a grudge against all blonde women. John had no reason to think that but he got the feeling that this was not going to be the end of the slayings. He just had his cop’s gut instinct.  
  
“John, I could help. If you just tell me what’s going on and who’s under that sheet.”  
  
“Jessica, turn around and go home,” John said rather forcefully. “There’s nothing you can do now to help her.”  
  
“It’s a ‘her’?” Jessica said. “Does she have anyone to come and claim her?”  
  
“All I know was that she was Marcie’s friend from college and –“ John realized he had said too much; that he had just given Jessica a lead in her reporting. But he felt oddly protective of her and didn’t want her to end up like Alison had, frozen in perpetual death, a twisted scream silenced on her now-blue lips.  
  
“I want to help, John,” Jessica said softly. “Maybe I can help you with this case.”  
  
“No. No way,” John said. “You need to go back to The Banner and keep writing those articles on the best place to find trout in Pennsylvania.”  
  
Jessica smiled a little. “You read my latest series of boring articles?”  
  
John looked at his feet. “Occasionally, I too get bored … Now go home.”  
  
“Okay, I’m going, I’m going,” she said and walked away.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
John was walking away from the crime scene when Brody called out to him. “Hey, John, we just found a potential witness.”  
  
“Who?”  
  
“Some vagrant who was prowling the docks when it happened.”  
  
“Do you think he could be the killer?” John asked.  
  
“Not sure, but you might want to interview him.”  
  
“Can someone else do it? I really need to go see Marcie …”  
  
“John, you know no one is better at interrogation than you.”  
  
“Fine,” John said with a wave of his hand. “Where is he?”  
  
“Huddled up in the alleyway over there,” Brody answered. “Talia’s trying to get some coffee into him and a bagel because he’s shaking so badly and almost incoherent.”  
  
John nodded and walked towards the alley. He saw the man first, sitting in a heap on the ground, shaking and muttering incomprehensible things to himself as Talia Sahid tried to coax some food and drink into him to, hoping to calm him down a bit.  
  
The man was at least fifty years old with a scruffy beard and a head full of matted hair. He was thin and frail-looking as well. John slowly approached him like he would a frightened, wounded animal and said, “Talia, I can take it from here.”  
  
“Okay, boss,” Talia said beginning to walk away when the man suddenly grabbed her hand and stared at John.  
  
“Don’t – don’t leave me alone with Him! Please. Please. He did it! He murdered that girl and he’ll kill me next!”


End file.
